Lament & Petition: Lent 1 B

Here’s a prayer of lament and petition based on Psalm 25:1-0. It was written by Joan Stott.

Prayer of Lament & Petition
(based on Psalm 25: 1-10)

O Lord our God, in penitence we come to worship you this day, seeking your blessing and mercy. We lift up our souls to your forgiving goodness, because in the past, you have always blessed and renewed us, when we came seeking forgiveness.

It is with real sorrow in our hearts that we need to ask you to teach us again your ways of truth. We know we should always remember what is your truth, what are    your ways of life and loving; but we ask again for you to guide and direct the path of our lives.

O God, we ask that you do not hold our youthful mistakes against us, as we now know how foolish we were in those long-ago days. Yet, even though we are now    older, we still make foolish mistakes. We offer our worship and honour to you, you have been so patient with us, and your loving generosity is beyond our understanding, and it is beyond what we deserve.

Gracious God, we want to try to understand, and to live according to your precepts; to live in your ways; with your truth, justice and love as our signposts in life. We humbly ask that you help by growing and nurturing our spiritual faith. Amen.


— written by Joan Stott, and posted on the Geelong City Parish, UCA website. If used in shared worship, please provide an acknowledgement as follows: © 2012 Joan Stott – "The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B, used with permission.